This four-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to capitalize on their skills and experience as an Oracle DBA to manage a Microsoft SQL Server system. This course provides training for Oracle DBA to compare and contrast Oracle database management to SQL Server database management.

Who Should Attend

This course is intended for experienced Oracle database administrators (DBAs) who work in an enterprise-level environment and require the skills to begin supporting and maintaining a SQL Server database.

Course Outline

Module 1: Database and instances

This module provides an understanding of the two major components of a database system. The database constitutes the files that store data, and the instance is the collection of server resources that provide a powerful, high performance interface to the data. It also illustrates how the two interact to provide data requested by the clients. Viewing the database and the instance as two separate interactive components of the RDBMS helps us to divide-and-conquer the vast set of topics covered in this workshop.

Lessons

Terminology concepts

Client interaction with database and instance

Understanding database limits

Module 2: Instance architecture

This module discusses the memory and process architectures that are key to a database's performance. The module goes into the details of the hierarchy of memory areas of an instance and its configuration. This module also describes how the various functions of the RDBMS are accomplished by the different processes running in the background. Finally, in this module, we look at the changes Oracle has made in its internal architecture on Microsoft Windows platform between 9i and 12c to exploit the advantages offered by the operating system mechanisms and how they compare to SQL Server's implementation.

Lessons

Configuring a database server

Memory architecture overview

Understanding processes and threads in the database engine

Background processes

Module 3: Database architecture

This module goes in-depth into structure, components and contents of the files that constitute the database. To be able to manage hundreds of gigabytes, terabytes, or even petabytes of data, it is important to learn the techniques by which storage is viewed (physical and logical) and allocated. Databases use various hierarchies of storage structures such as blocks, extents, segments and table spaces to control storage allocation. The definition of schema and the objects that comprise the schema are introduced here. SQL Server uses similar techniques as Oracle; however the differentiation from Oracle is in the functionality. Also covered in this module is how SQL Server 2014 supports placing data and log files on Microsoft Azure storage.

Lessons

Schema and data storage

Tablespaces and datafiles

Logging and data dictionary

Module 4: Data objects

This module examines the schema objects in both databases and introduces the new SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP tables and clustered columnstore index objects. While all schema objects are mentioned, of particular interest are tables, the type of data they can hold, and their storage layout. A proper understanding of data types and storage architecture of tables and indexes is useful in many aspects of database design and administration, such as fragmentation, capacity planning, etc. A mapping of the native data types from Oracle to SQL Server provides the student with a very good reference on what data types are compatible and what are not.

Lessons

Database tables

Schema objects

Data and data types

Non-native data types – Beyond relational

Module 5: Data access

This module focuses on how data is accessed and manipulated by the clients. Important concepts such as transaction, session, and so on are discussed here. This module describes the various commands available through SQL for manipulating data, metadata, transactions, sessions, and instances. An overview of procedural extensions to the SQL language available in Oracle (PL/SQL) and SQL Server (Transact-SQL) is given in this module. Cursors, which are data structures used to convey results of user transactions, are discussed as well to provide insight into what SQL Server supports and how they are used compared to Oracle.

Lessons

Comparing structured query language

Control and procedural statements

Developing robust queries

Module 6: Basic administration

This module contains discussion on planning and installation of SQL Server. While basic duties such a creating, starting and shutting down a database are common to all databases, the options available for these functions are the key differences. True to the words “Knowledge is Power”, familiarity with the data dictionary and the different ways a SQL Server DBA uses it compared to an Oracle DBA is an invaluable skill for any database administrator.

Lessons

Installing SQL Server

Managing and configuring SQL Server

Working with SQL Server databases

Module 7: Managing schema objects

This module provides the administrative aspect of schema objects described in Module 4. The discussion covers planning, creation and maintenance of many key schema objects. Choices in terms of table and index types, column types, and storage greatly influence the database growth, scalability, performance and maintainability.

Lessons

Managing tables, constraints, object identifiers, and naming

Managing triggers

Managing indexes and views

Module 8: Data protection and security

This module fulfills the twin tasks of protecting data against unauthorized access (database security) and also from the destructive interaction between authorized users working concurrently (concurrency control). Under security, the various features for securing and auditing the database are discussed. In addition, this module examines the various features available for providing security such as logins, roles, profiles, and privileges. This includes the new capabilities of SQL Server 2014 to support the separation of duties that can be used to provide the lowest level of privileges for server roles.

Lessons

Securing the database

Managing users

Understanding privileges

Managing roles

Module 9: Data transport

This module examines the non-transactional mechanisms for moving data into and out of a database. Included in this module is a discussion of how to copy databases to a Microsoft Azure VM using the SQL Server 2014 Deploy database to Azure VM wizard. Another key feature covered is SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS provides users with the capabilities beyond complex ETL and high performance data movement from heterogeneous data sources. It also adds data mining capability to the process and more, all of which will be discussed in this module. Other approaches to bulk data movement will also be covered in this module and guidelines will be provided on which tools are appropriate for what scenarios.

Lessons

Getting data into and out of SQL Server
Understanding SQL Server Integration Services
Other transfer methods

Module 10: Backup and recovery

This module lists the types of errors encountered in a database and the various mechanisms that are available to safeguard against these errors. This module discusses various types of backups and recovery methods available. This module also covers Oracle’s Recovery Manager (RMAN) and the equivalent functionality available in SQL Server Management Studio. In addition, this module covers the new capabilities with SQL Server 2014 for managed backups and manual backups to Microsoft Azure storage.

Lessons

Understanding database backups

Data recovery

Backup and recovery tools and solutions

Module 11: Monitoring and performance tuning

This module discusses the different approaches to instance and application tuning. It then discusses the administration of various types of resources such as system resources (such as memory, processes, storage, and so on) as well as low-level database resources (such as lock, latches, queues, and so on). This session features new capabilities of SQL Server 2014 that improve performance including In-Memory OLTP tables, delayed durability for transactions, online operations and buffer pool extension. Given the significant difference in how resources are managed and utilized in SQL Server compared to Oracle, it is important for the Oracle DBA to get a firm understanding of what is under the SQL Server hood in order to appreciate and best leverage the technology. Finally, it shows the mechanisms by which the database can be monitored for availability, errors, and performance. Statistics that can be captured for both proactive and reactive administration of the databases are reviewed here.

Lessons

SQL Server performance tuning

Managing memory and processes for SQL Server

Managing database interactions

Monitoring availability and errors

Monitoring performance

Module 12: Scalability and high availability

This module provides a high-level overview of the scalability and high availability features available in each RDBMS. Oracle and SQL Server are both enterprise class RDBMS, therefore the topics of scalability and high availability are deemed important. However, due to the scope of the course the discussion here is at a conceptual level and does not go beyond the concepts. The features discussed include AlwaysOn, parallel query, replication, clustering, table partitioning, database mirroring, and database snapshots.

Lessons

Understanding availability

Replicating databases

Other methods to obtain availability

Module 13: Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant

This module focuses on automating the process of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. This module presents an overview of the SSMA and will cover schema conversion, data migration, business logic conversion, validation, integration, and performance analysis.

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Last updated: 2018-02-21

Duluth, Minnesota SQL Server Training

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